M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
style what can I say? except that you talk Latin while the rest of us talk neither Latin nor Greek. Write often, I pray you, to the Lord my brother. He especially wishes me to get this from you. His wishes, however, make me unreasonable and exacting. Farewell, my most delightful of masters. Give my love to your grandson.
Fronto to Marcus
To my Lord Antoninus Augustus.
1. First done, then entered,[1] say they who keep their books carefully. The same saying is applicable to this letter, which now at last answers your recent one to me. The reason of the delay has been that, when I made up my mind to write, some things came into my mind, which could not be written down beak in air, as the saying is. Then intervened the sitting of the Senate, and the labour it entailed was felt the more heavily in that, being simultaneous with my joy, it had taken deeper hold of me, just as the wind when combined with the sun.[2] Now this letter, as it was not forthcoming at its due time, asks the indulgence usual in postponements, that it be without prejudice.
2. When I received your letter, I began my answer thus—Love me as you do love me, you say: I propose to answer this phrase somewhat less briefly. For I used to answer your letters more at length in
- ↑ Fronto seems to mean that his reply, or payment of his debt, was not made at once but followed later, as the entry in the ledger follows the transaction.
- ↑ Does Fronto mean that as the wind finds freer entrance to our bodies when the sun has caused us to lay aside our wraps, so toil makes itself more felt when joy has relaxed our energies?
